T. J. Jackson Lears, a cultural historian who edits the quarterly review Raritan, said, “The tendency to this sort of lamentation is perennial in American history,” adding that in periods “when political problems seem intractable or somehow frozen, there is a turn toward cultural issues.”
But now, Ms. Jacoby said, something different is happening: anti-intellectualism (the attitude that “too much learning can be a dangerous thing”) and anti-rationalism (“the idea that there is no such things as evidence or fact, just opinion”) have fused in a particularly insidious way.
The irony of Jacoby's alarmist school-marming is that her book is just as facile as the TV shows she mentions, like "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" It appeals to the same lame delight-at-being-scandalized, and by lamenting 'the kids these days' she squarely places herself in the hooting audience that can't believe how silly pop idols are. It's like when architecture students gasp and snort at panoramas of suburban tract housing, as if we didn't all grow up there. The sooner we stop being shocked and aroused by polls and anecdotes, game shows and soccer moms, the sooner we can start adding something constructive to our culture. For example: *not* her book. Probably not ranty archinect posts either, I guess. *sigh*
i've been noticing lately that there is always a "lowest common denominator" cultural tendency developing here...everything is gearing up to be easier, more accessible...less thinking required as status quo...
not to politicize this thing, but after the 2004 presidential debate, kerry lost ground for sounding too educated, intelligent -aloof to the common american - and bush gained popularity because people thought they could have a cup of coffee with him...
i can only comment on what she says in the article. i can not speculate whether or not she made the pearl harbor story up.
but anyway, i am not her lawyer or anything.
it is also fine by me, whoever drives the monster truck, as long as he knows its fuel comes from elsewhere and it is not his. and if he is selfish enough to think it is his right to pollute the environment, declare oil wars for some type of luna parkish sensation, i 'personally' say fuck him and stick the exhaust pipe in his fuckin' ass.
nothing personal evil, we are just talking.
is it elitist to require some education, so a teenager would know europe is not a country and 'hungary' is a country?
overdramatization for the eager and willing to be shamed, the folks who love to wallow in the doom and gloom prophets - everyone is so quick to dump on US but Ive been to Europe, and I think many there harbor more racism than we do. And in Eurasia they just cut the minorities groups' heads off. So lets not jump on the screw America bandwagon.
As for oil, it has lead essentially to the lifting of entire human race out of a more primitive existance where the stench of horse shit wafted so generously through our screenless windows. As neat as this was, oil allowed for the growth of wealth and technology like never before. And if someone pays for some refined crude to fuel up their monster truck than god bless, the world keeps on working. Maybe we'll get to the day when we can do it cleaner but that wont happen by going backwards, only forewards forever.
who is this 'common man'?! most people with whom i come in contact are much more nuanced and have a myriad of different kinds of knowledge. so what's common?
this is usually a rhetorical phrase used to separate regular folks from some stereotyped 'elite' when populists start talking. i don't have any way to know the value or quality of ms jacoby's book, but she's certainly not talking about a separation of people into common/elite but more about a baseline of necessary cultural and historical knowledge.
i certainly didn't read any of this as dumping on america.
and speaking of common man stories, i have heard this conversation in the coffee shop the other day and i adored it enough to write it down in my note book, as soon as i heard so i wouldn't forget its essence.
two people, possibly stagehands in nearby film shoot talking;
-"it's like fuckin'g layers man."
-"Layers??"
-"yeah man, layers... like fuckin' onion..."
this happened right before i went to architecture school to talk to students.
have a nice afternoon evil. you know i respect your rants, even though i don't always agree with you...
i wasn't going to read the article until i saw the pearl harbor thing here...that is very funny. maybe true, but sounds apocryphal. everyone i grew up with knows pearl harbour was what started the crimean war...
actually, as an official white trash kid (like izzy in grey's anatomy), with all trauma and so on that such an upraising entails, i gotta say...she is kinda right but for the wrong reasons...
when i was young i was bright and learned to hide knowledge cuz there was literally nothing worse for a kid than admitting an interest in astronomy and math when what i was supposed to be interested in was scoring drugs or alcohol...there was a palpable suspicion of people who knew things...but after i grew up that changed. the guys i hung out with did not go to uni but became mechanics, carpenters, factory workers, wealthy CEO'S (surprisingly)...and some went to jail...they were/re as common as can be...and if you talk to them now, most of them would probably know as much about current events as any college guy. and they know a lot of things i ain't got a clue about...
so the rule of ignorance changed over time...and maybe it is not the important metric to begin with...
i am not so affronted by lack of geographical knowledge, but it pisses me off that a lot of the kids i grew up with did not believe in (and probably didn't have) a chance of leaving their poverty behind. maybe she is measuring apathy, not knowledge...?
evilp, your love for america makes you sound naive, really.
Young americans need to have some 'common knowledge' as orhan points out, to stay alive and get jobs in this fast changing world, that is catching up ever so fast. Its the same people who know a lot about monster trucks and nothing about, say simple math, that complain about their jobs being sent elsewhere.
Why does everyone assume young Americans dont have this knoweledge? Why do you eat the hype these fear mongers slop out? Could it be your easily persuaded?
If you think jobs are being sent elsewhere because of American lack of skill or sophistication your being naive. Its highly educated economics geniuses who have come to the enlightened position they can just loot the country and get kids and near slaves to to make it across the world in sweat shops. Fear the Harvard and Yale MBA more than the monster truck watching plumber.
20 Comments
But now, Ms. Jacoby said, something different is happening: anti-intellectualism (the attitude that “too much learning can be a dangerous thing”) and anti-rationalism (“the idea that there is no such things as evidence or fact, just opinion”) have fused in a particularly insidious way.
scary thoughts.
i'm still working on trying to know EVERYTHING.
stupid is as stupid does my momma used to say
- Forrest Gump
what's scares me is how many people seem to think i'm intelligent...yikes
The irony of Jacoby's alarmist school-marming is that her book is just as facile as the TV shows she mentions, like "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" It appeals to the same lame delight-at-being-scandalized, and by lamenting 'the kids these days' she squarely places herself in the hooting audience that can't believe how silly pop idols are. It's like when architecture students gasp and snort at panoramas of suburban tract housing, as if we didn't all grow up there. The sooner we stop being shocked and aroused by polls and anecdotes, game shows and soccer moms, the sooner we can start adding something constructive to our culture. For example: *not* her book. Probably not ranty archinect posts either, I guess. *sigh*
i've been noticing lately that there is always a "lowest common denominator" cultural tendency developing here...everything is gearing up to be easier, more accessible...less thinking required as status quo...
not to politicize this thing, but after the 2004 presidential debate, kerry lost ground for sounding too educated, intelligent -aloof to the common american - and bush gained popularity because people thought they could have a cup of coffee with him...
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never underestimate the wisdom of the common man
i agree. as long as the common man has some common knowledge though.
that sounds elitist. Who are you to say what is acceptable knoweldge? How do you know they dont? Because they like monster trucks?
I just read that article and I bet shes full of shit about the guys in the bar talking about Pearl Harbor.
i can only comment on what she says in the article. i can not speculate whether or not she made the pearl harbor story up.
but anyway, i am not her lawyer or anything.
it is also fine by me, whoever drives the monster truck, as long as he knows its fuel comes from elsewhere and it is not his. and if he is selfish enough to think it is his right to pollute the environment, declare oil wars for some type of luna parkish sensation, i 'personally' say fuck him and stick the exhaust pipe in his fuckin' ass.
nothing personal evil, we are just talking.
is it elitist to require some education, so a teenager would know europe is not a country and 'hungary' is a country?
overdramatization for the eager and willing to be shamed, the folks who love to wallow in the doom and gloom prophets - everyone is so quick to dump on US but Ive been to Europe, and I think many there harbor more racism than we do. And in Eurasia they just cut the minorities groups' heads off. So lets not jump on the screw America bandwagon.
As for oil, it has lead essentially to the lifting of entire human race out of a more primitive existance where the stench of horse shit wafted so generously through our screenless windows. As neat as this was, oil allowed for the growth of wealth and technology like never before. And if someone pays for some refined crude to fuel up their monster truck than god bless, the world keeps on working. Maybe we'll get to the day when we can do it cleaner but that wont happen by going backwards, only forewards forever.
who is this 'common man'?! most people with whom i come in contact are much more nuanced and have a myriad of different kinds of knowledge. so what's common?
this is usually a rhetorical phrase used to separate regular folks from some stereotyped 'elite' when populists start talking. i don't have any way to know the value or quality of ms jacoby's book, but she's certainly not talking about a separation of people into common/elite but more about a baseline of necessary cultural and historical knowledge.
i certainly didn't read any of this as dumping on america.
and speaking of common man stories, i have heard this conversation in the coffee shop the other day and i adored it enough to write it down in my note book, as soon as i heard so i wouldn't forget its essence.
two people, possibly stagehands in nearby film shoot talking;
-"it's like fuckin'g layers man."
-"Layers??"
-"yeah man, layers... like fuckin' onion..."
this happened right before i went to architecture school to talk to students.
have a nice afternoon evil. you know i respect your rants, even though i don't always agree with you...
i wasn't going to read the article until i saw the pearl harbor thing here...that is very funny. maybe true, but sounds apocryphal. everyone i grew up with knows pearl harbour was what started the crimean war...
actually, as an official white trash kid (like izzy in grey's anatomy), with all trauma and so on that such an upraising entails, i gotta say...she is kinda right but for the wrong reasons...
when i was young i was bright and learned to hide knowledge cuz there was literally nothing worse for a kid than admitting an interest in astronomy and math when what i was supposed to be interested in was scoring drugs or alcohol...there was a palpable suspicion of people who knew things...but after i grew up that changed. the guys i hung out with did not go to uni but became mechanics, carpenters, factory workers, wealthy CEO'S (surprisingly)...and some went to jail...they were/re as common as can be...and if you talk to them now, most of them would probably know as much about current events as any college guy. and they know a lot of things i ain't got a clue about...
so the rule of ignorance changed over time...and maybe it is not the important metric to begin with...
i am not so affronted by lack of geographical knowledge, but it pisses me off that a lot of the kids i grew up with did not believe in (and probably didn't have) a chance of leaving their poverty behind. maybe she is measuring apathy, not knowledge...?
"Did we give up when the germans bombed pearl harbor?"
preach it, platypus
evilp, your love for america makes you sound naive, really.
Young americans need to have some 'common knowledge' as orhan points out, to stay alive and get jobs in this fast changing world, that is catching up ever so fast. Its the same people who know a lot about monster trucks and nothing about, say simple math, that complain about their jobs being sent elsewhere.
Why does everyone assume young Americans dont have this knoweledge? Why do you eat the hype these fear mongers slop out? Could it be your easily persuaded?
If you think jobs are being sent elsewhere because of American lack of skill or sophistication your being naive. Its highly educated economics geniuses who have come to the enlightened position they can just loot the country and get kids and near slaves to to make it across the world in sweat shops. Fear the Harvard and Yale MBA more than the monster truck watching plumber.
i'm going to get a harvard mba...and then open a plumbing business
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